“I saw average stuff (today),” McClendon said. “We didn’t swing the bats very good. At some point, you gotta stop giving credit to average pitchers. That becomes a broken record. At some point, you have to start swinging the bats.”

Russell Wilson, the Seahawks quarterback, sat behind home plate all day, so maybe McClendon was distracted.

A southpaw and groundball enthusiast, King Keuchel faced three batters above the minimum. From the third inning on, he faced only the minimum, and set down 21 of the last 22 he faced.

He struck out six and allowed just four hits while, for the third time in his last four starts, walking nobody. In his last 34 1/3 innings — that’s a run of 102 batters retired — Keuchel has walked just one. He’s 6-2 with a 2.55 ERA, and he hasn’t even lost his dry sense of humor on the road to stardom.

Well, potential stardom. The last Astros pitcher to go at least eight innings three times straight was Felipe Paulino, in 2010.

“Yeah, I mean, tee ball was pretty good,” Keuchel said when asked if he had ever felt this confident before. “So if I didn’t hit a home run in tee ball, I didn’t do my job. Tee ball, and high school, those two were pretty good.”

It’d be one thing for McClendon to question Keuchel had he not thrown a shutout two starts ago against the Rangers. Or had Keuchel not followed up that performance with 8 2/3 innings of more brilliance against the Angels six days later.

Keuchel now might wind up as the American League pitcher of the month, with a 1.05 ERA in May and one more start to make.

“Last time I faced these guys I came out in the seventh and walked three guys in a row (on May 3),” Keuchel said. “I had that on my mind the whole time, just wanted to attack the zone. They were aggressive early, I threw a lot of two-seams in the last inning, threw a couple cutters to some of the lefties that had seen a cutter before during the game.”

Keuchel will always puzzle people because his velocity isn’t high. But he’s changing speeds, he’s changing his delivery times to the plate and he’s adjusting pitch selection throughout the game. The Mariners were going after his hard stuff early, so Keuchel and catcher Carlos Corporan started throwing more soft stuff.

“He’s sneaky. He changes tempo,” Corporan said. “He light steps when he has to — that’s what it’s about, hitting is timing.”

“Not that good like him,” Corporan said when asked if others change their delivery times. “That’s what makes him so good, he’s got the ability to do it whenever he wants to.”

Manager Bo Porter didn’t let loose when told of McClendon’s comments, but Porter stood up for the No. 5 pitcher who has become his ace. McClendon has one of the greatest pitchers in the game, Felix Hernandez, whom the Astros faced Friday.

“He’s arguably one of the best pitchers in baseball right now,” Porter said of Keuchel. “That’s not to take anything away from anybody else.”

The only run the Mariners run scored came on a toss Keuchel would like to have back, but not one that went to home plate.

Cole Gillespie hit a swinging bunt with two out in the second inning along the third-base line. Keuchel, who fields his position well, misfired to first base, allowing Mike Zunino to score from second base for a 1-0 Mariners lead.

“I started off with two strikeouts to start the inning, and just let my guard down a little bit,” Keuchel said. “Just kind of made a bonehead throw.”

The only other hit Keuchel allowed from there was a single to Kyle Seager in the seventh inning.

All the offense Keuchel needed came on George Springer’s two-run homer in the sixth inning, an elevated, outer-half breaking ball from Hisashi Iwakuma that Springer tagged to left.

Springer is tied for the team lead in home runs with Matt Dominguez, at seven, and has four homers in his last in three games. The Astros’ record for long balls in one month is eight.

“He deserves the credit,” Springer said of Keuchel. “He pitched an unbelievable game, he does his thing out there, he’s smart, he changes speed.”

Of late, Iwakuma himself has been average, in the parlance of the day. The righty went eight innings in each of his previous three starts, allowing just two runs combined, but the Astros touched him up for four runs in seven frames Sunday. Marc Krauss’ two-run homer followed one inning after Springer’s.

“One run is plenty, especially the way (Keuchel has) been throwing lately,” Krauss said of the lead he padded. “Having a couple extra doesn’t hurt, especially for him, how he attacks the zone.”